Tom crutchfield

[Alejandro45]

Hello Everyone.

I have been volunteering for Tom Crutchfield for seven months to get my hours for a venomous permit. Everything has been going well since a few days ago. I was tailing every thing and have had a lot of experience with rattlesnakes, cobras. And even crocodile monitors.

Until Tom decides to trade an inland taipan for mangshan vipers. I had tailed the snake to show it to a very good friend of Tom’s so he can take a photo. Every thing went fine the snake is not flighty or aggressive in any way. Three hours pass by and I am in class Tom gives me a call, saying I have no idea how stupid I am for tailing that snake, and decides to not give me any credit for the thousands of hours I had volunteering at his place. Now I am stuck back in square one because I was too stupid to make him sign any paperwork.

This post is not to make Tom look bad in anyway. But just be careful around him and his dealing. He buys all his reptiles from Strictly Reptiles “trust me I went and picked out animals for him”. Tom used to be a great person to get animals from but now he is just a reseller. His ego precedes him in every way and he claims to be the best when he gave me no credit for all the animals I helped him with.

PS if there is anyone in Florida who owns venomous I would like to volunteer to learn from you "with paperwork"

[Erik]

Dan Scolaro claims to be a friend of his, but this information is 3+ years old.

[boarama]

I will let Tom know this thread is here. Maybe he will give his side of the story.

[boarama]

Originally Posted by Alejandro45

Hello Everyone.

I have been volunteering for Tom Crutchfield for seven months to get my hours for a venomous permit. Everything has been going well since a few days ago. I was tailing every thing and have had a lot of experience with rattlesnakes, cobras. And even crocodile monitors.

Until Tom decides to trade an inland taipan for mangshan vipers. I had tailed the snake to show it to a very good friend of Tom’s so he can take a photo. Every thing went fine the snake is not flighty or aggressive in any way. Three hours pass by and I am in class Tom gives me a call, saying I have no idea how stupid I am for tailing that snake, and decides to not give me any credit for the thousands of hours I had volunteering at his place. Now I am stuck back in square one because I was too stupid to make him sign any paperwork.

This post is not to make Tom look bad in anyway. But just be careful around him and his dealing. He buys all his reptiles from Strictly Reptiles “trust me I went and picked out animals for him”. Tom used to be a great person to get animals from but now he is just a reseller. His ego precedes him in every way and he claims to be the best when he gave me no credit for all the animals I helped him with.

PS if there is anyone in Florida who owns venomous I would like to volunteer to learn from you "with paperwork"

I have contacted Tom about this, and we have emailed back and forth a couple of times. I think this is pretty imature of you to start this thread.

I have color coded your qoute to my responces.

When you put your hours in with someone, it's for you to learn so you can make the proper decisions. Just because you handle one venomous species does not mean you are ready to handle them all, some are better to work with then others. You were grabbing a very dangerous snake by the tail that should not have been handled that way. Not only for your safety, and the saftey of the others who were there, but had that animal tried to escape, you would not have been able to react properly because you were not handeling the animal correctly from the beginning.

You were not experienced with that species, and you did not handle it the way it should have been handle. So you put yourself, and the others that were there in harms way. Had that animal tried to escape, you were not equiped to deal with that either. You seem to take for granted that the animal was plesent the time you chose to handle it, well what if the animal was not pleasant after you handled it so carelessly? You may have had some serious consiquences.

And as for your thousands of hours you claim you had in with Tom, he said you only had a couple of hundred. If you really had enough time in to qualify for your own venimous permit, you would have turned in the paper work. Anyone I know always did it as soon as thier time was up. Some do continue to volunteer, but thier paper work is filed as soon as it can be.

I would say that you are doing all you can to make Tom look bad, and discredit him.


First of all, I know for a fact that Tom does not buy all of his animals from Strictly's Reptiles. And secondly, so what if he did. Is there something wrong with that? I have bought from Strictly's several times myself. Is there something wrong with being a reseller? Tom does breed certain species, and he buys others, so what, a lot of people in this business do the same thing, are they all bad too?

You can't blame anyone for not wanting people around who make poor decisions. This industry is under attack from all kinds of people right now, and we really don't need any more bad things to happen. Had you or someone else been bit by the snake that you handled carelessly, or if it escaped, the media, and animal rights people would of had more fuel to dump on the fire. We don't need any more black eyes.

So rather then accept responsibility for your actions, you chose to come on here and trash talk Tom. I would say that you have a lot to learn about a lot of things.

And by making this post, why would another venomous dealer want to teach you? If something didn't go your way you would trash them too.

[Erik]

Thanks for making this more enlightening for those of us (me) that are not familiar or ad educated about the hots.

I've heard lots of old things about Tom and the later things that I've heard have been fairly positive, but I have no personal experience with him (and absolutely NO experience with hots).

[Erik]

I agree with this closure.

I wish I knew what to say to Alejandro. He doesn't post here very much. This is a personal beef. I tend to agree with what I've heard (Tom was aghast at what he found at took appropriate action).

I don't think anything needs to be said to Tom. If Tom wishes to reply, I will open the thread for his response, and then I will close it immediately afterward.